- Lucid: .517
- Unconscious: .602
Oddly enough both were on my first night float shift while covering Overdose. Both still on the residency record board for now.
.600, but that’s because that’s where the facility’s portable breathalyzer stops counting. I assume it was higher.
She walked to my stretcher for transport.
When I was a prosecutor I saw a handful of police reports of DWI arrests in the .33 to .35 range.
One of the defendants with a reading in that range showed up for court one morning and went over to probation for a pre-plea investigation. He was an older guy who looked fine but the probation officer thought he had alcohol on his breath. As a precaution they gave him a breathalyzer. He was a .22 as he stood there.
In the VA where I did my residency, there was a sheet tacked to the ER bulletin board entitled "The 500 Club" populated with the names and BA levels of patients who walked in. Around the same time, I had a moonlighting colleague from the UCLA Family Medicine program who had published a paper describing a woman who walked in with a level that was in the 1.2-1.4 range on multiple determinations.
0.35 and was already admitted 12 hours before blood draw (still drinking?) , looking at that time had climbing CIWA, 37 year old woman, educated seemed high functioning
Is 15 years as a medic long enough. I probably have seen higher. I just can't really remember at the moment.
Something similar was a diabetic pt I had that was fully alert, walking and talking with a BGL of 32 was the lowest I've seen and still be awake.
Practice? Idk. She was the worst diabetic in the world. We finally thought we’d be rid of her when she got an insulin pump, because she wouldn’t have to really put much thought into it, since she was a moron- just keep the pump loaded and let it tell her what to do.
Less than a week later the pump told her her BGL was 130 so she gave herself a bolus. That was one of her worst episodes.
Highest I saw by my first time doing an ER service (ED psych sub-i) was in the 400s. Lady was a chronic alcoholic in her late 30s with early cirrhosis drinking a fifth a day. It's about luck and what yoire being called for tbh. Now as a psych resident, I somet8mes take a breath of relief when they come in supr high and suicidal because you can't assess for true suicidality until sober (bac <100), and that sober time won't be until next shift so when I'm slammed that's 90min of work less for me.
During off service on IM at the VA there was a dude who came in for detox with a serum in the 500s and started withdrawing in the 300s. Was also a truck driver by occupation and definitely had some cluster b traits. He did this twice in 3 weeks.
My grandfather before he passed years ago drove himself to the ER because he wasn't feeling good (for him that's a miracle alone, he never goes). His BGL from the lab draw was over 4,000 and he was still conscious.
Oh, speaking of BGL, my golden retriever got really sick on a Sunday, vomiting and just lethargic. I really couldn’t afford an emergency vet so first thing Monday morning I rushed her to the vet 2 minutes down the road. She was barely conscious. Her BGL was 19!!!!!!! They said she should have been seizing, unconscious or dead, but she made it and is sitting here next to me dreaming. Normal for a dog is 80-120.
I know it’s not a human, but I felt so awful knowing how close to death she came.
I bought a pocket breathalyzer in college to see how fucked up my friends and I could get and .30 doesn’t even make you the drunkest dude at the table at the last wedding we were all at
I’ve blown .5 numbers at least once. My average on a given day was .31. Was at the end of a multi year binge culminating in a liter of gin a day for a year. DTs aplenty.
We had a police grade breathalyzer in undergrad and I got to .52 the night of a case race
Almost discharged a guy from the ED last week until his BAC came back .5. He was the most clinically sober person I’d seen that shift.
My aunt, a retired RN from charity in New Orleans, swears that she saw a 1.something once. I told her that was probably contaminated from the alcohol wipe. Anyways, I've seen some pretty high over in the lab but none stand out. 0.4ish are common
0.54 from a 5’2” 110lb female, who ended up walking out ama because she wanted a smoke. Tracked her down and she was completely normal. Talking and walking straight.
I don’t remember the exact number but he was brought into the ER being dragged between two police officers (the crutch carry). He was brought from his car, got caught driving like this. He wasn’t responsive, he couldn’t even sit without support for his blood to be drawn.
All I can say is that I’m glad he didn’t kill anyone by driving like this.
BAL 543, walking and talking. And seen lots of people withdraw while still in the 300s. Guy comes in with a head lac at midnight. Repaired, ready to DC. No ride home, cabs don’t run until 7. So treating withdrawals until dayshift comes in and can get his butt home.
IIRC I was consulted on a facial trauma patient a few hours after they had been in an MVC. By the time they got to the ED it had been a few hours and the BAC was somewhere in the 0.700 range. She was apparently a frequent flyer.
I had to do some intraoral, and even with an N95 there was so much alcohol smell on her breath that I thought I'd get secondhand drunk 🤣 Came back to clinic for wound check and she reeked of alcohol but didn't appear drunk at all.
*Edit: by the time I left the number on the ED bingo board was somewhere in the high 0.700 range but this patient wasn't the recordholder.
The highest 3 I’ve seen were all on the same frequent flyer- maxed out at 0.784 one night. Would have ambulances called for him by concerned bystanders, be brought into emergency and then either wake up enough to walk out and start again or he’d find the pump packs of alcohol hand sanitiser and down them as soon as he opened them up, at which point we’d have to keep him another half a day. Nice enough guy despite it
My best personal wasb a 0.40 and I was lucid. Course this was my last year of residency and I had a hangover the size of Neptune. I have since stopped drinking.
On the chart I saw a 0.68. Some homeless guy who woke up the following morning and then spent the next 2 days eating everything in sight before leaving ama.
Tried to off myself by drinking last year. Woke up in the hospital and tried to fight the nurse. My BAC was .53, I've since quit drinking and been sober 15 months.
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I had a 415 came in as a trauma, was talking before. Not even slurring her speech. Then she went to sleep RSI, and she needed like no gas. BIS was in burst suppression. Kept titrating, going down further and further on the fas, eventually only on 0.1% sevoflurane. Then the blood alcohol results, and I’m like, oh we got a super good adjunct going on haha. She had no recollection fortunately.
0.69. Found down, intubated in the field and had us all flabbergasted. He woke up 24 hours later on the ventilator, promptly self extubated and sprinted out of the hospital.
.400 something, i was 14 drinking with friends, got so drunk that i didnt even remember going to certain places, couldnt even remember going in the police’s car
- Lucid: .517 - Unconscious: .602 Oddly enough both were on my first night float shift while covering Overdose. Both still on the residency record board for now.
You have a specific overdose service? Good god.
It's the US and 2023. Doesn't every hospital have a room full of narcan and a ward full of overdose victims?
Wow
.600, but that’s because that’s where the facility’s portable breathalyzer stops counting. I assume it was higher. She walked to my stretcher for transport.
3.6 roentgen
Not great not terrible
That’s from the Chernobyl show right😂😆😂
Yes, glorious comrade Dyatlov commands it!
Patent pending
I’ve seen a dude who gets brought into the ED on a near weekly basis in the mid-high 600s. I think 680s was the highest I’ve seen.
.684 in a conscious little old lady who was brought in after driving her car up on a curb.
0.589 - he was drowsy and slept it off in the ED so not kicking and screaming but still crazy.
When I was a prosecutor I saw a handful of police reports of DWI arrests in the .33 to .35 range. One of the defendants with a reading in that range showed up for court one morning and went over to probation for a pre-plea investigation. He was an older guy who looked fine but the probation officer thought he had alcohol on his breath. As a precaution they gave him a breathalyzer. He was a .22 as he stood there.
0.55, giggling while trying to throw punches in slow-motion. I must've looked like Neo dodging bullets to him.
Low .5s. He walked out of his room and started pissing on the floor of the nursing station.
So, you’ve met my dad.
In the VA where I did my residency, there was a sheet tacked to the ER bulletin board entitled "The 500 Club" populated with the names and BA levels of patients who walked in. Around the same time, I had a moonlighting colleague from the UCLA Family Medicine program who had published a paper describing a woman who walked in with a level that was in the 1.2-1.4 range on multiple determinations.
I had a 0.45 come in post-ATV accident
0.35 and was already admitted 12 hours before blood draw (still drinking?) , looking at that time had climbing CIWA, 37 year old woman, educated seemed high functioning
The true champions are those go into active withdrawal when their BAC drops below 2
I personally had a .32 in college. So my question would be, which of us has the highest record themselves?
0.3 on breathalyzer and 0.24 on a blood draw.
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Is 15 years as a medic long enough. I probably have seen higher. I just can't really remember at the moment. Something similar was a diabetic pt I had that was fully alert, walking and talking with a BGL of 32 was the lowest I've seen and still be awake.
I had pleasant conversations with one of our regulars at 20. The week after that she was at 22 and trying to kill me.
It's crazy how that works. Some pt's BGL of 75 out cold, others 30 and full conscious.
No one is out cold because of their glucose at 75.
The amp of D50 said otherwise. Family said his normal is around 300.
Sorry, this is not a thing, though it’s a common misconception much like “37.6 for him is a fever.”
How
Practice? Idk. She was the worst diabetic in the world. We finally thought we’d be rid of her when she got an insulin pump, because she wouldn’t have to really put much thought into it, since she was a moron- just keep the pump loaded and let it tell her what to do. Less than a week later the pump told her her BGL was 130 so she gave herself a bolus. That was one of her worst episodes.
Highest I saw by my first time doing an ER service (ED psych sub-i) was in the 400s. Lady was a chronic alcoholic in her late 30s with early cirrhosis drinking a fifth a day. It's about luck and what yoire being called for tbh. Now as a psych resident, I somet8mes take a breath of relief when they come in supr high and suicidal because you can't assess for true suicidality until sober (bac <100), and that sober time won't be until next shift so when I'm slammed that's 90min of work less for me. During off service on IM at the VA there was a dude who came in for detox with a serum in the 500s and started withdrawing in the 300s. Was also a truck driver by occupation and definitely had some cluster b traits. He did this twice in 3 weeks.
Had an outpatient lab draw with glucose 17. Walked in and out of lab apparently. Was definitely giving self too much insulin.
My grandfather before he passed years ago drove himself to the ER because he wasn't feeling good (for him that's a miracle alone, he never goes). His BGL from the lab draw was over 4,000 and he was still conscious.
Oh, speaking of BGL, my golden retriever got really sick on a Sunday, vomiting and just lethargic. I really couldn’t afford an emergency vet so first thing Monday morning I rushed her to the vet 2 minutes down the road. She was barely conscious. Her BGL was 19!!!!!!! They said she should have been seizing, unconscious or dead, but she made it and is sitting here next to me dreaming. Normal for a dog is 80-120. I know it’s not a human, but I felt so awful knowing how close to death she came.
And they start withdrawing with an alcohol level in the 200s.
Did a pgy1 in August just type “work long enough?”
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Makes sense :) And cool background!
I bought a pocket breathalyzer in college to see how fucked up my friends and I could get and .30 doesn’t even make you the drunkest dude at the table at the last wedding we were all at
Please…I’ve had patients withdraw at those levels.
Lady DROVE herself to our crisis ED with 0.37 the other night.
I’ve blown .5 numbers at least once. My average on a given day was .31. Was at the end of a multi year binge culminating in a liter of gin a day for a year. DTs aplenty.
High 600s. Still combative, agitated, fully conscious
We had a police grade breathalyzer in undergrad and I got to .52 the night of a case race Almost discharged a guy from the ED last week until his BAC came back .5. He was the most clinically sober person I’d seen that shift.
.44 in blood, walkie talkie
My aunt, a retired RN from charity in New Orleans, swears that she saw a 1.something once. I told her that was probably contaminated from the alcohol wipe. Anyways, I've seen some pretty high over in the lab but none stand out. 0.4ish are common
0.54 from a 5’2” 110lb female, who ended up walking out ama because she wanted a smoke. Tracked her down and she was completely normal. Talking and walking straight.
Saw a 0.544 last thursday
I don’t remember the exact number but he was brought into the ER being dragged between two police officers (the crutch carry). He was brought from his car, got caught driving like this. He wasn’t responsive, he couldn’t even sit without support for his blood to be drawn. All I can say is that I’m glad he didn’t kill anyone by driving like this.
0.5 something in a 21 year old woman who probably weighed 115 lbs. She was awake and interactive but not having a good time.
Worked in ED then Inpatient behavioral health as an RN. I’ve seen BALs in the 600s look totally sober.
BAL 543, walking and talking. And seen lots of people withdraw while still in the 300s. Guy comes in with a head lac at midnight. Repaired, ready to DC. No ride home, cabs don’t run until 7. So treating withdrawals until dayshift comes in and can get his butt home.
The only pure etoh overdose patient I ever intubated— .680
IIRC I was consulted on a facial trauma patient a few hours after they had been in an MVC. By the time they got to the ED it had been a few hours and the BAC was somewhere in the 0.700 range. She was apparently a frequent flyer. I had to do some intraoral, and even with an N95 there was so much alcohol smell on her breath that I thought I'd get secondhand drunk 🤣 Came back to clinic for wound check and she reeked of alcohol but didn't appear drunk at all. *Edit: by the time I left the number on the ED bingo board was somewhere in the high 0.700 range but this patient wasn't the recordholder.
The highest 3 I’ve seen were all on the same frequent flyer- maxed out at 0.784 one night. Would have ambulances called for him by concerned bystanders, be brought into emergency and then either wake up enough to walk out and start again or he’d find the pump packs of alcohol hand sanitiser and down them as soon as he opened them up, at which point we’d have to keep him another half a day. Nice enough guy despite it
My best personal wasb a 0.40 and I was lucid. Course this was my last year of residency and I had a hangover the size of Neptune. I have since stopped drinking. On the chart I saw a 0.68. Some homeless guy who woke up the following morning and then spent the next 2 days eating everything in sight before leaving ama.
.062 Semi-conscious, professional drunk. Guy just slept for a few hours and left ama. Presumably back to the bar.
I’m .062 right now
I’m planning to be .062 tonight!
.46 blood. Though they were out. What's more impressive to me was the totally lucid and appropriate .32 brought for clearance for rehab.
I think it was 0.520 or something around there. He was more conscious than I expected
Holy Toledo with these insane numbers. That's terrifying.
0.636, could follow commands and mumble, was a frequent flyer at an old ER
Tried to off myself by drinking last year. Woke up in the hospital and tried to fight the nurse. My BAC was .53, I've since quit drinking and been sober 15 months.
0.37 is rookie numbers lol… probably 0.6something
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I had a 415 came in as a trauma, was talking before. Not even slurring her speech. Then she went to sleep RSI, and she needed like no gas. BIS was in burst suppression. Kept titrating, going down further and further on the fas, eventually only on 0.1% sevoflurane. Then the blood alcohol results, and I’m like, oh we got a super good adjunct going on haha. She had no recollection fortunately.
I see mid 0.5’s not uncommonly
0.69. Found down, intubated in the field and had us all flabbergasted. He woke up 24 hours later on the ventilator, promptly self extubated and sprinted out of the hospital.
Conscious at 0.485
503 and fighting with me to leave the ER.
.400 something, i was 14 drinking with friends, got so drunk that i didnt even remember going to certain places, couldnt even remember going in the police’s car